Rob Collard has snatched the race two from Mat Jackson after a race long battle between the two drivers.
The safety car was scrambled almost immediately during this race as Kelvin Fletcher and Ollie Jackson both ended their races in the old Hairpin gravel. It took five laps to clear out the cars and then we were back to some incredibly close racing.
Initially Jackson lead from Tom Ingram with Rob Collard, Josh Cook, Jack Goff and Ashley Sutton. Just behind those Aron Smith squeezed his BKR VW past Jeff Smith’s Eurotech Honda on the exit of Redgate. This was to prove to be pivotal as it set him up to take advantage of his rivals battling ahead.
On the next lap the pack were closely bunched going into the final chicane, resulting in Plato’s Subaru running through the gravel and Turkington’s similar machine ending up beached in the gravel on the outside of the track, meaning another safety car.
Just before this Jack Goff found his way past Josh Cook to take fourth place. Tom Ingram was by now trying to find his way past Mat Jackson but Collard and Goff were close behind in their WSR run BMWs.
Further back, Jeff Smith was again in front of the works Honda of Gordon Shedden in 8th and 9th, the Eurotech cars looking quick at their home circuit, athough team mate Depper ran out of luck with suspension issues in race one so he was busy fighting his way up the field.
Jeff then tried to progress further and battled with the pack in front only to clash with Josh Cook and drop himself back down the order.
Tom Ingram’s fight was to shortly fall apart as he got into a battle with the WSR BMW’s and ran wide dropping him down the field. This gave Rob Collard the opportunity he needed to take second and close down Mat Jackson. Sam Tordoff was another driver to lose out in the battle between the three WSR cars and Tom Ingram although he managed to stay in touch with the leaders after his off track excursion.
Jackson’s ballast laden Focus couldn’t hold back Collard and he powered past in the closing stages to take the win. Jackson held on for second with a gap back to third. In that third place was Team BKR’s Aron Smith who took advantage of the scuffles between Ingram and the BMW’s to slip past into third.
Collard was thrilled to take the win but confirmed it was by no means easy;
“I had to work hard for that in the opening laps,” enthused Collard after the contest. “The key was the first lap when I made the jump from sixth up to Tom in third, It all paid off. Once we were in third, it was game on with Mat Jackson starting to struggle a bit as the race headed towards the finish.”
He continued.
“The car is feeling so sharp at the moment it was really good – I’m really pleased with it. We’ve stuck with the BMW and it’s the best it’s been since the 3 Series days. We left Brands with a bit of a cloud after race two and I’m pleased we were able to come here and prove to everyone we’re winners. There were some good moves in there and I’m proud I can still perform like that.”
Smith was pleased to take the BKR team’s second podium in as many race meetings;
“It’s a good, I’m really happy,” said Aron. “It was a hard one though. I earned that more than I did the podium at Brands. The racing was good and everyone was clean and fair.”
He described how he took advantage of the battling cars in front of him.
“I was in the right place at the right time at the chicane when a couple came together down there, it was a bit of luck. It was a race where I could have ended up in the barrier a couple of times on a different day but I didn’t.”
Gordon Shedden took some important points with fourth ahead of Jack Goff. Matt Neal was sixth ahead of Josh Cook who lost out from the close battling.
Sam Tordoff did well to hold onto to eighth in front of Aiden Moffat, taking a top nine finish. Rob Austin took tenth, his weekend is improving. Adam Morgan’s Wix Racing Mercedes was eleventh ahead of Andrew Jordan, who can’t seem to find the pace in the Focus that team mate Jackson can.
MG’s Ashley Sutton found himself down in thirteenth this time, ahead of Hunter Abbott, the Power maxed driver again in the points.
The final point was taken by Tom Ingram who had dropped down nearly half the field after his off track incident. Jeff Smith came off worse still dropping to eighteenth behind team mate Depper in seventeenth.
James Cole was a non-starter in his Subaru, the earlier fire in race one putting his car out of action for the rest of the weekend.
We’ve now had a different winner for every round of the 5 BTCC races so far in 2016 and ech one has driven a different make of car. This year’s title battle is looking like it could end up being the closest ever. Currently after that race, Mat Jackson leads the points standings.
Full results are on TSL timing.
The final race gets underway at 17:17 By Marc Waller
